Assessment of eating disorders: Interview or self‐report questionnaire?

TLDR

The study compared an investigator‑based interview with a self‑report questionnaire derived from that interview to assess eating disorder features. The interview and questionnaire agreed on simple behaviors such as vomiting and dieting, but the questionnaire produced higher scores for binge eating and shape concerns, and both methods underestimated body weight.

Abstract

A detailed comparison was made of two methods for assessing the features of eating disorders. An investigator-based interview was compared with a self-report questionnaire based directly on that interview. A number of important discrepancies emerged. Although the two measures performed similarly with respect to the assessment of unambiguous behavioral features such as self-induced vomiting and dieting, the self-report questionnaire generated higher scores than the interview when assessing more complex features such as binge eating and concerns about shape. Both methods underestimated body weight.